Word: civilizations
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...showing of the semantic significance, NBC’s Matt Lauer actually made an official announcement on the network’s “Today” show about the company’s decision to utilize the term “civil war.” Lauer said, “After careful consideration, NBC News has decided that a change in terminology is warranted, that the situation in Iraq with armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas can now be characterized as civil war.” The network’s cable news channel...
...Needless to say, NBC is by no means the first outlet to alter their official nomenclature. According to Editor & Publisher writer, Anna Crane, the Los Angeles Times was amongst the first media outlets to shed the qualifiers and label the fighting directly as a civil war. Other organizations have since fallen into line. The Christian Science Monitor likes “deepening civil war,” while Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria is pretty direct: “We’re in the middle of a civil war and are being shot at by both sides...
...situation on the ground. So no matter what the word choice, every editorial board in the country has at some stage considered where they will fall on the question of meaning. And predictably, those editors interviewed by The Washington Post who still avoid using the term “civil war,” most cited definition as their defense...
...Still, when looking for a description of events, it’s hard to go past CNN’s Baghdad reporter Michael Ware’s description. Ware reported to Paula Zahn Now last week, “By any academic’s definition, this is civil war, organized conflict by two elements within a country to pursue the political center, with elements of ethnic cleansing, militia combat, family against family, neighbor against neighbor, with a degree of organization and coordination...
...Academics are indeed inclined to agree with Ware, according to Edward Wong’s Nov. 26 news analysis in The New York Times, “A Matter of Definition: What Makes a Civil War, and Who Declares It So?” Wong reports that most American scholars of civil war are in agreement with James Fearon, a political scientist at Stanford, who says, “I think that at this time, and for some time now, the level of violence in Iraq meets the definition of civil war that any reasonable person would have...